Wednesday, 9 May 2007

In anticipation of Tony Blair returning on Thursday to his Sedgefield constituency for the long-awaited announcement that he is standing down as leader of the Labour Party here are a few interesting quotes from his time as PM.

From Prime Minister's Questions, 30 July 1997:Sir Michael Spicer: Looking back on the past 96 days, and with the benefit of hindsight, what does the Prime Minister think has been his worst mistake--losing control over interest rates, raiding pension funds, robbing the reserves, or what?The Prime Minister: Certainly our greatest triumph has been to remove the Conservative Government. As for my greatest mistake, that is for me to know and for the hon. Gentleman to find out.

Well Mr Blair, we have found out and there is quite a list.

Blair Quotes ..."This party will, ultimately, be judged on its ability to deliver on its promise" ... Based on the numerous broken promises I'm not sure Blair would feel the same way today :)

"I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country." From Tony Blair's speech to Labour Party conference October 1995. Blair did succeed in changing the country, however not in a good way.

"Ask me my three priorities for Government, and I tell you: education, education and education." ... I have a few quotes for Blair regarding his priority.1. There was no improvement in education in 2005. This is from the Telegraph 17/05/2005 "The number of failing secondary schools has gone up despite the Government's focus on improving standards through the "reform" of comprehensive education."2. There is still no improvement today. This from today's telegraph "Last year, one in 10 pupils - 75,000 - failed to obtain five GCSEs of whatever grade. That figure has remained the same since 1999. Of these, 26,000 pupils fail to achieve a single GCSE."

Speech in Paris, May 1997.“Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.” Violent and serious crimes have increased. If Blair meant he would be "tough on crime" by installing "talking" cctv cameras to yell at children for littering as they walk down the street then he has succeeded at that.

"We'll negotiate a withdrawal from the EEC"(now the EU)"which has drained our natural resources and destroyed jobs". Tony Blair, before he became an MP, in 1983. Mr Blair is now an enthusiastic supporter of the EU and asserts that Britain must "be at the heart of Europe". It is very possible that Blair intends to use his final weeks as Prime Minister to in office to surrender British powers to Brussels as part of his drive for a European "legacy" irrespective of the fact that the majority of the public are very much opposed to this.

"Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government." Blair has had his time with barren power. Soon he will no longer have power and his principles are long gone so what will be left?

In the spirit of the transfer of Labour leadership, one final quote from Gordon Brown about Tony Blair. "There is nothing that you could say to me now that I could ever believe." (To Tony Blair by Gordon Brown) That pretty much sums up the public's view on Blair. The only thing Brown didn't mention is that is sums up the public's view of him as well.